The spirits of Terabithia
by Spider-monkey girl
Summary: Leslie is dead, but when May-belle and Jess become King and Princess of Terabithia, what will happen to four spirits that watch them? ON HAITUS
1. Terabithia's Castle

Jess smiled. All the people of Terabithia were gathered here to see him – him and May-belle, that is. If only Leslie hadn't died. Maybe she would be here, getting crowned by the giant troll. His eyes filled with tears as he thought about Leslie – kind, beautiful Leslie, who had taught him to see the world with a different eye. Oops! Now He'd blown it! If he thought too much about Leslie these days, it always became too much to bear. He began to cry properly now, and suddenly his legs were carrying him to the tree house.

He leant against the tree-trunk, sobbing his heart out. "Leslie, Leslie, Leslie!" He called out in despair. Of course, it was highly unlikely that she was going to hear him. Impossible, in fact.

But then, out of the corner of his eye – Leslie. He swung around to face her. Alas, she was now on his other side. Once again, she wasn't there. Jess soon realised that she wasn't going to let him near her.

"Jess, Jess!" May-belle's voice came loud and clear through his thoughts. He looked around for her, and spotted her through the trees. He turned around to say goodbye to Leslie, but she was already gone. That wasn't a surprise.

Sighing, he turned back to May-belle. She was almost next to him, her hair caught by the wind, her crown glittering in the sun. The sight made him catch his breath. If it had been his choice, Leslie would be the one standing next to him, her hair caught by the wind, her crown glittering in the sun. "Jess, wake up!" May-belle shouted in his ear. And fortunately, it _did_ wake him up. "What are you doing? The people want you to make a speech!"

"OK, I'm coming!" May-belle was annoying, and her childish ways of putting things made it worse. His thoughts about Leslie hadn't been finished, and May-belle had interrupted him. That had made him more irritable, more like him before Leslie came into his life.

He walked back with May-belle, listening to her chatter, yet not really taking a word of it in.

By the time they got back to the clearing, most of the people had gone back to their dens, thinking that Jess and May-belle were going home. The only ones left were the giant troll, and some of the fairy warriors. Sighing for the second time in ten minuets, he wondered how he could have ever trusted May-belle to carry a message without messing the meaning up.

Since the people had gone, Jess and May-belle made their way up to the castle. It was very grand, fit for kings and queens of Terabithia. Of course, that was ironic, since he, Leslie and May-belle were royal, on Terabithian terms at least.

As they walked through the halls, paintings were on either side of him. As well as paintings of them, there were others, whom Jess assumed were honoured lords and ladies in Terabithia. However, there was a nagging suspicion in the back of his mind that maybe his generation hadn't been the first to discover Terabithia.

For instance, one of the paintings looked like his great uncle Ashley, who had disappeared in 1932. And was that lady, crowned in jewels, his great, great grandma? It was scary, seeing paintings of people in your family tree, up on the walls of a castle, wearing fine robes instead of their farm clothes.

Oh, never mind! Jess pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind. It couldn't be his relatives, no way! Indeed one lady was blond, and the rest of his family was dark haired.

But wait. . .Leslie was blond, wasn't she? Maybe her family had lived here before, and that was why they moved.

The feeling was odd, knowing that they hadn't been the first to discover Terabithia. But he and May-belle – and possibly Leslie – were here now, to make laws, to crown lords, and altogether rule Terabithia.

As they rounded a corner, a group of servants, crouching and polishing the floor, saw them, and stood to attention. _That_ was weird, if nothing else was.

May-belle was running to them, not understanding that these new people weren't playmates, but people employed to work at the palace. Jess himself ran forward, to pull May-belle back and explain to the servants that she didn't understand the place value of servants and Royalty. However, there was no need; as soon as May-belle started forward, the servants scarpered.

But he still needed to inform May-belle for next she met the servants. So he dragged her back, and told her that on no account must she be seen trying to interact with the lowly ones, aka the servants.

"Why?" May-belle asked.

"Because," Jess answered, trying to make up an answer, "It looks unseemly. Servants keep to their place, and Royalty keep to theirs."

"But. . .but," May-belle didn't seem to be able to come up with a retort, so he took the chance to drag her along the corridor.

As they went along, the paintings got older and older, until they were about 14th centuary. Not all the pictures looked like them though.

A few had blond hair, like Leslie, but they wore it differently, mostly long. One girl had ash blond hair, shoulder length. Her eyes were small, and Jess thought that maybe glasses would help her.

Most of the 'other people' looked like these people. The family of the one with short hair didn't look like they needed glasses. Indeed, most of them didn't. He walked along the corridor, looking at the paintings. Then he saw one that was different to the others.

It was a girl of about 11 years old. She had shoulder length, strawberry blond hair, and a happy, friendly face. No-one could compare to the beauty of Leslie, of course, but she, this girl, looked OK.

Then he saw something that he hadn't before. Name plates, underneath each picture, telling you who each person was. The girl with long blond hair was called Libby Stinger, the shoulder length first girl called Chloe Evans, and the strawberry blond girl called Faye Ellina.

The fact that he hadn't noticed this before made him nervous; was he going mad? Of course not, he told himself, the paintings' splendour had captured him. Now that they were there, it didn't matter if he was mad. He could tell May-belle.

Oh dear. It seemed that he had forgotten about May-belle. Now he had no idea where in the castle she was. He ran along the corridor, hoping to find her.

As he hurried along, he thought that she would defy his orders as king of Terabithia, and try to find the servants. The servants quarters would be underground, away from the Royal court, but May-belle didn't know that, did she? No. So that didn't give him any clues. However, there was no harm in trying, so he looked around for any sign of stairs – there were none.

Fortunately, as if to save his worrying head, a drum boomed through the castle, a clear sign, and a voice crackled over loudspeakers, "Would his and her royal highness please make their way over to the entrance of the castle, please."

Jess looked round for the corridor he had come in by. He spotted Libby Stinger's painting, in a corridor across the way.

He made his way over to it and walked back along the 'painting' corridor, and saw May-belle already standing there.

Angrily, he marched over to May-belle and demanded, "How come she's here first?" The staff looked surprised, and said, "She's younger than you, Jess."

He nodded, then realised that this lowly wrench should have called him 'your highness' or 'your majesty' or 'sir' at least.

So he snapped "That's your majesty to you." The servant who had spoken clapped his hand over his mouth, and knelt down and begged for forgiveness. After all, he was king! If the servants started treating him as familiars, he may as well resign.

He jumped back to reality because the grovelling servant had stopped grovelling. The servant was now saying "Sir and Ms, the reason you have been summoned -"

"You did not summon us, you merely requested us to come, and we did. We had every chance to decline." Jess interrupted. He was going to have to put this man on a course for manners!

"Sir, I am only repeating what my master told me to say, do not blame me."

" If you carry on like that, master or no master, you will be dismissed."

"Do it then, if you have the guts!"

"Very well then." Suddenly Jess knew what to say, a ritual of words that had been passed down in Terabithia for Royals. "Young sir, you may or may not have served Terabithia well – I do not mix with your kind," Jess began confidently, "But you have been rude to me now, and that is what counts to me. You are now banished from this castle. You may work on the borders of our land, but no more. Work your way up the ranks of the land, and maybe one day you will come back to work here. But until then, Terabithia recognises you only as an outlaw. Now go!"

By this time, the servant's knees were knocking, and he ran off. Jess felt a sense of satisfaction, crushed only by the fact that he had just lost a man his job. Oh well. He couldn't let people be rude to the king.

Pushing those thoughts out of his mind, he turned to May-belle, and asked, "How come you were here first?" She looked offended.

"Because I was fetched personally by the nice man that you banned!"

"Really? Why?"

"Because. . .I'm more specialer than you!"

"The word, May-belle, is special. Not specialer."

"I don't care! You know what I mean, and that's what matters!"

"You can't talk to your subjects with incorrect grammar!"

That stumped her for a bit, then she walked off, muttering to herself. Jess sighed. In future, he really should stop correcting his sister.


	2. Close shave

When Maybelle's muttering and footsteps had faded away, Jess went to look at the other portraits. He found the one he was looking for, The familiar face looked down on him, He looked down at the name plate; Leslie Burke was engraved on speckless gold, He felt the tears come to his eyes, and he felt in his pockets for tissues,

Suddenly he heard three noises, There was a shriek from Maybelle, a bark that sounded like P.T, and a comforting voice that sounded like – no, it couldn't be – but who else was it?

"Leslie!" Jess cried, and ran out the double doors of the castle. There she was, as beautiful as ever, arms outstretched to embrace him. When they broke apart, Jess noticed the three girls he had seen in the portraits at the castle, but but there was more to their features than in paint.

They had all looked serious but happy, but it was obviously just a pose. Chloe had a cheeky grin, and looked very carefree and young. She had a trustworthy glint in her eyes, and seemed very eager to prove herself. Faye and Libby were quieter, and more mature, but they looked like they could be fun too.

"So you're Jess? I was imagining a girl but still. . ." Chloe broke off and shrugged. Her voice rang out clearly, and everyone smiled.

"Leslie, can't you come home? Your parents would be delighted." Jess tried to persuade her to come home, and was thoroughly upset when Leslie shook her head.

"As soon as I enter your world, I become a ghost, and my parents wouldn't be able to see me. It's sad, I know." She shook her head once and sighed.

There was a sudden howl in the distance.

"It's a wolf – get up a tree, and fast!" Leslie whispered.

It wasn't a make believe game like himself and Leslie used to play, and pine cone grenades certainly couldn't fight off a real life wolf.

May belle started to cry, she had only experienced wolves on tv, and she was scared. Her body froze, the blood drained from her face, and her eyes widened like saucers. A brown hairy wolf was coming across the bridge, it's red slits fixed on May belle, who was well built despite a lack of food.

Bang, bang, went a gun shot, and the beast fell down dead with a bullet through it's heart.

"Jess, May belle, come here!" Shouted their dad, the wolf killer, relieved at the fact that his children were still in one piece.

"Daddy!" May belle jumped into her father's arms.

"Come on Jess, your mother is worried." Jess' dad ordered.

"Hang on, I need to say goodbye to. . ." but Leslie was gone ". . .never mind."

Their mum was in hysterics when they got back.

"I warned you, I told you there was a wolf loose in the area. Never do that to me again, ok?"

"Calm down mum, we're alright. We were going up a tree, and wolves can't climb, you know." Jess said quickly, hoping to reassure her.

His mother fixed her eyes on him, deliberating. "I think that you and May belle should stop playing in the woods for a while." His mother drew her conclusion, evoking anger from Jess and May belle alike.

"Mum!" May belle pleaded, pulling out the saddest expression that she could find. "Me and Jess have the most wonderful time there, surely you won't deny us our fun?"

Jess could see his mum weakening by the second, so he added his voice to May belle's. "It keeps us amused" he stated "What will we do if we can't go?"

"That's true. . ." Jess heard his mum mumbling to herself. She made up her mind. "Alright. You can go for now. But if anything like this happens again, then I will forbid you from going there."

Jess breathed out a sigh of relief. They were safe for a while. No doubt that something like this would happen again, so they had better do as much as they could while they could.

He started towards the door. "Come on May belle," he said. Turning around briefly, he said "thanks mum!"

And he and May belle made their way back to Terabithia.


End file.
